The Daily Dispatch: August 19, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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Pastoral letter.

We have received a copy of the ‘"Pastoral Letter to the clergy and members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the State of Arkansas; by the Right Rev. Henry C. Lay, D. D., Missionary Bishop of the South west."’ The letter gives a lucid and interesting record of the work of the Episcopal Church in that diocese, and is accompanied by a paper of marked ability on ‘"Our Relations to the Church in the United States."’ Bishop Lay, after an examination of the Constitution and Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the old United States, comes to the conclusion that the Episcopal Church in the South has an unquestionable right to claim ultimately a distinct organization as a National Church and is prepared to unite with his brethren in organizing a General Convention of the Church in the Confederate States. In reference to his own jurisdiction in the missionary field, which was derived from the General Convention of the old United States, he proposes to advise with his brethren in the Episcopate. Bishop Lay is a native of Chesterfield county, in this State, and one of the most eloquent and gifted of the Southern clergy.